Country Music
Updated: Jul 15
I had such a nice time the other night playing with the Electric Rangers in Dadeville! This was my first primarily "country" gig and it's so fun to reach my tendrils into all kinds of genres, especially one so endemic of my surroundings. I am not a great fiddler, but I am a great dabbler, and that almost makes up for it.
Zazu's Verandah in Dadeville
I sang two Loretta Lynn songs. This was my first time ever singing solo in public, and everyone was REALLY sweet about it. Yes I felt awkward as F standing there and I also happen to look awkward as F but no one made fun of me at all and I think the singing came out well.
Wow wix really does vertical videos like this huh. Honestly I should just use audio
Country songs are very formulaic. Until they're not.
The country music "formula" is always playing on the cosmic radio somewhere. It is the primal material of country music. It is like when you "tare" a scale. You don't worry about the formula, or that a song is "formulaic." That's just atmosphere. Rooms have walls. That doesn't make them boring.
Each song deviates from the formula. Learning a country song means learning where those deviations are. Those deviations are where the actual "song" lives differentiated from the prima materia. It is the deviations that people who love the song fall in love with. It is the deviations that lift you out of your senses and bring you into the present moment, into real sonic experience, into spiritual adventure. And the context of the formula makes the deviations palatable, it sets them like the band of a ring sets the jewel.